Remnant
by Spitzal
Summary: He was a remnant of a time long forgotten, a relic from before the shattering, but he might just be the key to the future.
1. Chapter 1

Wandering, wandering, wandering. He felt like he'd been doing nothing else his entire life, though he knew that couldn't be true. Although considering the void that dominated his mind before the past days, this wandering might have been his entire life. At least the weather was nice, the sun warming him while a cool breeze went through his fur, the ground surprisingly soft beneath his paws as he kept moving. He didn't know where he was going, no goal besides the urge to keep moving, yet even in his relaxed state he kept all his senses alert. It would take less than a second for him to spring into action, which is exactly what happened when he heard a loud bang in the distance.

Ears twitching, he took off in the direction of the noise, powerful strides eating up the ground as more bangs sounded. The closer he got, the better he could the sounds of what he could tell were a battle up ahead, snarls and growls reaching his ears along with an odd whistling sound, and he quickened his pace.

Breaking through the tree line into a decent sized clearing, he charged at one of a pack of wolf-like creatures with his fangs bared. He collided with it mid-leap, biting down on its neck and ripping before moving on to another, leaving it to disappear behind him. He took out two more creatures with fang and claw before the battle was over, their bodies disappearing just like the first, and he was able to take in his surroundings more clearly.

His nose was burning with the acrid scent the creatures always left behind when they were killed, as he'd found out in his first encounter with them, but it wasn't strong enough to cover up the scent of roses all around the clearing. Looking around, he saw petals scattered through the grass that were also disappearing with time, and he tilted his head to the side in curiosity. He was about to take a closer look when he heard a shuffle behind him, his ears twitching towards what would have been a nearly silent sound for anyone else, and he remembered the bangs noise that had lead him here in the first place.

Turning around, the first thing he noticed was the large scythe held threateningly in his direction, making him lower himself in preparation to spring. Soon after, he noticed the exhausted and scratched up form holding the weapon, a young girl in crimson cloak, and the faint scent of blood in the air. She was trembling slightly, most of her strength going to keeping the scythe in front of her, and he could smell her fear even as she looked at him with brave silver orbs.

He absolutely dwarfed her form, her head not even making it to his shoulder, and he let himself relax with a huff. Sitting back on his haunches, he had to actually look down at her to keep her in sight, he knew she couldn't attack him if her life depended on it. He could still smell her fear, mixing unpleasantly with the copper of her blood, even as she let her weapon down and the weight of it dug into the ground. He lowered himself further still, resting his head on his large paws, as the smell of her fear faded and was replaced with roses.

The girl was still standing, but her shaking was becoming more pronounced as he gave the air a long sniff. Satisfied there were no more creatures around, he closed his eyes and settled in to wait while the girl either recovered or collapsed, he would stay close until he was sure she could defend herself. He heard the sound of her slumping to the ground but kept his eyes closed, even when it was followed by the sound of her dragging herself across the ground. He didn't open his eyes until she had brought herself next to him, enjoying the scent of roses she seemed to emanate, and a small hand touched his fur.

She was exhausted, he could see it in every line of her body, but she had somehow found the energy to come over to him and start scratching him right behind his ear in a way that was nothing short of divine. Closing his eyes again in contentment with his tail moving lazily behind him, he decided then and there he would follow this girl everywhere as long she kept giving him ear scratches. She giggled when she saw his tail moving and he felt like some forgotten part of him was dying a slow and painful death, but since he couldn't remember it to begin with he decided to ignore it.

After a few minutes of bliss the girl yawned loudly and stopped scratching, filling him with disappointment until she leaned heavily against his side. Cracking one eye open, he saw her pull up the hood of her red cloak and lean against him fully. One of her hands reached up and tangled itself in his fur as her breathing deepened with sleep, feeling warm and safe against the much larger than average wolf. He curled his body protectively around her in response, feeling warmth spread through him, as he decided to get some rest of his own.

It looked like his wandering was over.

++++++++++RWBY++++++++++

It was several hours and much worrying later when Qrow found Ruby. Sleeping peacefully curled against a jet-black wolf that was larger than any Beowolf the huntsman had ever seen, Qrow nearly had a heart attack. He had thought it was actually a Grimm at first due its size and color, before the lack of aggression or bone-like protrusions told him otherwise, but that didn't stop him from having an internal panic attack at his niece being so close to an incredibly dangerous animal. There was no way for him to get to her in time if it decided to attack, no matter how fast or skilled he was.

Heart hammering, he was frozen just inside the tree-line as his logic finally kicked in. Both Ruby and the monstrous animal were sleeping, quite happily by the look of things, and Qrow was loathe to intrude when Ruby looked so relaxed. He was training her to be a huntress, but she was only twelve now despite her natural talent and skill with a scythe and she deserved moments to relax and enjoy herself like everyone else her age. Even if he would prefer she not do so in ways that would give him and Taiyang so many grey hairs.

Resisting the urge to sigh, the hunter winged his way to the ground and transformed just out of sight to walk into the clearing. Qrow had barely made it past the trees when the large wolf woke up, a pair of intelligent red eyes locking onto him with a warning growl, and he was forced to stop. He didn't make any sudden moves, putting his hands up placatingly hoping to calm the beast down as its teeth were bared aggressively.

Qrow watched it carefully, seeing how it didn't actually get up even as it went on the defensive and curled itself protectively around his niece. Did it not want to wake her? Whether or not that was the wolf's intention didn't matter after another, quieter, growl escaped it and Ruby started to stir.

Rubbing at her eyes groggily, Ruby felt more well-rested than she had in a while. The fur she leaned against was soft, the way she imagined a cloud would feel, and she felt safe and warm like she'd been sleeping in her bed and not in the middle of one of the forests on Patch.

Ruby remembered going out earlier to hunt Grimm, wanting to see how much she had improved since the last time she'd gone hunting with her uncle, only to be ambushed by a much larger pack of Beowolves than she'd ever encountered. She also remembered the huge black wolf that had come to her rescue when she was about to be overwhelmed, how it had killed some of the Grimm and then stayed with her after. She had wanted to thank it by giving it an ear scratch, giving it one the same way she knew Zwei liked, but she hadn't meant to fall asleep.

Pushing back her hood, she tried to figure out what had woken her when there was a loud growl from the wolf and she found herself instantly alert. She looked around nearby, expecting to see more Grimm, only to relax and shout with joy when she spotted her uncle in front of her at the edge of the clearing, "Uncle Qrow!"

Her Uncle gave her a smirk that seemed out of place compared to his tense posture and the hands he was holding up and out to his sides, "Hey kiddo, could you do me a favor and call off your new friend there?"

Frowning at him in confusion, it took her a second to realize what he was taking about, and Qrow could practically see the lightbulb go off above her head when she finally noticed the growling, "Oh! Right, I'll just, right." Ruby stood, still a little unsteady from sleep, and turned to face the wolf. She couldn't summon up even the smallest amount of caution when she reached out and wrapped her arms around the large animal, there was no way it was going to hurt her after letting her sleep against it, and gave it a scratch behind the ears, "It's alright, that's Uncle Qrow, he's safe."

The growling stopped as the wolf went limp, pressing itself into Ruby's hands eagerly, and Qrow raised his eyebrows incredulously at the sight. The animal was massive, the same height he was when it was laying down and easily twice as long, and Ruby was petting it like it was as dangerous as Zwei. Sure the girl looked like Little Red Riding Hood, but this was just ridiculous, the whine it gave when she stopped petting it had no place coming from something that size. At least it wasn't looking at him like it was about to tear him to pieces anymore, though it would have been less surreal than the intelligence he could see in those eyes. If that was a normal animal, then he wasn't an alcoholic, "Thanks, Ruby. Now, could you tell me what happened? Specifically how you ended up covered in scrapes and making friends with the most dangerous thing that's not a Grimm I've ever seen?"

The wolf stood with a huff at his words, towering over him and making Ruby look like a small child in comparison as she blushed and started stuttering through an explanation, and he suddenly decided he wasn't nearly drunk enough for this.

++++++++++RWBY++++++++++

Ruby was really glad her dad was on a mission and Yang was at Signal when she and Qrow got back to their house with a giant wolf in tow. Qrow had tried to get her to leave it behind, it was a wild animal and a very dangerous one, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Of course, the way it whined and pushed against her when he'd told her that, not to mention the way it followed her, might have had something to do with her decision. Ruby was outside with the wolf now, Qrow had gone inside muttering something about his flask and hadn't come back out yet, and she was taking this as a chance to get a better look at her new companion.

The wolf was massive, larger than any Grimm she'd encountered, with fur so dark it seemed to absorb the light around it. Standing right next to it, she had to crane her neck to look up at its face, where it was looking back at her with beautiful red eyes with flecks of gold in them and enough intelligence she would have thought they were human. With a quick and slightly embarrassing peek, she found out it was male, and decided to come up with a suitably epic name for him later.

As Ruby continued to look him over, earning nothing more than a patient stare in return, she noticed there were actually thin metal bands around each of his legs. She looked over each one carefully, seeing no sign of a seam on any of them, and wondered why and how they had gotten there in the first place. They almost looked like shackles to the girl, a sudden anger going through her at the thought, before she replaced it with the relief that the wolf was free now.

The huntress-in-training didn't find anything else out of place until she came to the wolf's neck, where she found a metal collar that was much larger than the others with odd markings covering every visible surface. She didn't know how she hadn't noticed it before, blaming the soft and thick fur that had been covering it, and looked for any sign of how it had been placed on him. The wolf, seeing that she was having trouble reaching him with her much smaller size, lowered himself to the ground and kept his head up so she could study it closer.

Ruby looked over the entire collar, unable to make any sense out of the markings all over it and not finding any hints about how it had been put on, before she started to get frustrated. She ran her hand roughly across it on accident, earning herself a cut in the process, just as Qrow finally walked back outside.

There was a sound like shattering glass followed by a brief glow from the collar before it seemed to shatter in front of Ruby's eyes. She gaped as she watched it disappear, having no clue what had just happened, and continued to do so as the wolf suddenly went stiff and seemed to fold in on itself. In the space of a blink, the animal had been replaced with a boy about her age with red eyes and black hair, along with a pair of wolf ears and a fluffy tail of the same dark color. He was wearing clothes that were little better than rags, torn and dirty as they were, but they didn't do anything to diminish the bright, fanged, smile he gave her as he tackled her.

Ruby found herself smiling brightly back at him as he rubbed his head against her stomach, the same way the wolf had earlier, and wrapped her arms around him as one hand reached up and started scratching one of his fluffy ears. She giggled as he went limp against her, again just like the wolf did, and decided to just go with the flow.

Qrow just opened his freshly refilled flask and started chugging.

++++++++++RWBY++++++++++

Qrow had seen a lot of crazy shit in his life, he could turn into a bird for Oum's sake! That didn't mean he had any idea what the fuck was happening.

Sure, he knew about the maidens, about Salem and the Grimm, and about Ozpin. But he was having trouble wrapping his brain around around the wolf boy, now showered and in clean clothes, that was sleeping in Ruby's bedroom with the owner of said bedroom. He wasn't sure if he was glad Taiyang wouldn't be back for another two weeks, currently on a mission with a few other hunters on the mainland of Vale, or if he would rather the man deal with this in his stead. At least he had time to figure out what was going on before trying to explain to his friend why his twelve year old daughter had a boy sleeping with her, a boy who could also turn into a wolf so big it made the local Grimm look like puppies and kittens. That was going to go over _so_ well.

Even Ozpin hadn't known what was going on, this wasn't something he had done. There was definitely magic involved, that much was obvious, but the man would have to see the boy in person before he could figure out anything more concrete. With Qrow's, Tai's, and his schedule, that would be nearly impossible, not to mention his obvious attachment to Ruby. Which was equally returned based on what Qrow had seen, though he couldn't fathom why. Ruby had always been a shy kid, not helped by her social awkwardness, so her sudden attachment to the boy, who was also a wolf, was baffling to him. Did he mention the boy could turn into a wolf? Yeah, he really wasn't getting over that any time soon.

This was definitely the last time Taiyang would leave him home alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Taiyang didn't know what he was expecting when he came home, but it definitely wasn't this.

Ruby was asleep on the couch in the living room, she always tried to stay awake and greet him as soon as he came back no matter how late he was, and it brought a smile to his face. Qrow was also on the couch, equally asleep, which was unexpected but not too out of the ordinary. It was the third body that had him confused.

There was a young Faunus boy about Ruby's age on the couch, also asleep, that Tai had definitely never seen before. He was sandwiched between the other two, his head resting on Qrow's shoulder who had his own head tilted over the back of the couch with one arm over both the boy and Ruby. Ruby had her own head on the boy's shoulder, her arms wrapped around one of his, with a fluffy tail peeking out from her other side.

After staring for a long moment at the scene, Tai took out his scroll and snapped a few pictures of the sleeping trio on the couch. They looked quite content, Qrow's face relaxed in sleep in a way it rarely was otherwise, and Tai decided not to disturb them. He left and headed for his room, ready to get some rest of his own. They would still be there in the morning.

++++++++++RWBY++++++++++

"Let me get this straight. The boy currently outside with Ruby, a wolf Faunus who is also an _actual_ wolf, has been here for two weeks and you didn't tell me. He also has no memories beyond the fact his name _might_ have started with the letter 'H' and several scars that have no place being on a child so young, one of which has no right being on anyone, and magic is somehow involved. _And_ you told Ozpin before you told me."

Taiyang was standing in the kitchen with his arms crossed, taking glances outside every now and then as Ruby and the boy, Hades as Ruby had named him, played an incredibly acrobatic game of tag while Qrow sat in front of him. Honestly, the part Tai found the most shocking was how Qrow was sober, a cup of tea sitting in front of him and his faithful flask nowhere in sight. He couldn't actually remember the last time he'd seen his friend completely sober, not since, well, not in a long time. Apparently Hades didn't like the smell of alcohol, at least not the hard liquor Qrow preferred, and it had somehow resulted in the man sobering up a few days after the boy's appearance. Tai doubted it would remain that way, but it would be nice while it lasted.

Qrow took a drink and gave him an amused look, "He's also been sleeping with Ruby. And before you give me the 'overprotective father' look, I tried separating them. They'll fall asleep in different rooms, but they always somehow end up together by morning. I stood watch one night to see how they do it, but neither one of them left the room they fell asleep in. They just somehow woke up in the same bed together."

Tai didn't bother resisting the urge to rub his face in exasperation, wondering what life was going to throw at him next. "Anything else you need to tell me?"

Qrow furrowed his brow, pretending to think while he took a drink, and enjoying the look of annoyance on his best friend's face, "Oh yeah, Yang should be coming home sometime today."

Taiyang's eye twitched, the beginning of a headache making itself known, and had to tell himself it was a bad idea to throttle the hunter across from him so early in the morning, "Why is Yang coming home and why wasn't I notified?"

Qrow leaned back in his seat, deciding not to torture the man anymore today. "She got in trouble for beating up several older students outside of class, don't know why yet, and you were on a mission. I'm listed as a secondary contact when you're gone, so I was contacted. She was supposed to stay at the school, but I told them there was a family emergency so she's coming home. And I didn't tell you because, again, you were on a mission and I didn't want to distract you."

Tai knew Qrow had his best interests at heart, he really did, but a heads up about what was going on would have been nice. He was about to have a long talk with the man about sharing information when there was a loud yell of "Ruby!" outside followed by a blond girl that looked quite a bit like Taiyang running into view. Looks like the ultimatum would have to wait.

++++++++++RWBY++++++++++

Qrow stayed inside and watched from the window as Tai left the kitchen, sipping at his tea and for once not wishing it was alcohol. He was always more content around the Rose-Xiao Long family than anywhere else, but these past two weeks he had been truly happy for the first time since Summer died. The appearance of Hades had brought a life to the home that he hadn't realized was missing.

Qrow watched from the window as Yang twirled Ruby around in a hug, Tai stepping behind them and scooping them both up easily into a group hug, before he let them down. As soon as Ruby was released, she grabbed one of Hades hands and pulled him over to Yang, the boy letting her do so with a smile. Qrow knew just how strong the boy was, his strength was downright inhuman, but you would never know with the way he let Ruby drag him around everywhere with a smile on his lips.

Qrow continued to watch as Ruby started gesturing wildly, an excited look on her face while Yang looked at Hades somewhat skeptically, and the hunter knew what was about to happen next. He was proven right when a second later Ruby let go of Hades and the boy stepped back from the group, going from child to wolf in the span of a second. Even watching with his complete attention, Qrow couldn't explain what happened, he doubted even Ozpin would be able to if he saw.

Qrow had seen the boy change a number of times now, was used to the immense size he became, but it was clear Tai hadn't fully believed him when he'd been explaining. Even the the blond hunter, who was a bit above average in height, was dwarfed by the sheer size of Hades when he was standing tall. He couldn't resist taking out his scroll and taking a picture, his shock only matched by the obvious excitement on Yang's face and the happiness on Ruby's. Even Hades looked amused, though how that was possible was something Qrow didn't bother wondering about on top of everything else.

The wolf lowered himself to the ground, head resting on his paws, and Ruby wasted no time scrambling onto his back while her sister followed after her barely a second later. Qrow probably should have warned Tai about how much Ruby liked to ride with Hades through the surrounding forests, the wolf was incredibly fast, but he would find out soon enough. Hades moved easily even with two passengers on his back, the weight barely noticeable, and started moving slowly before gaining speed.

Qrow could hear his two nieces squealing with excitement from inside, and he didn't think he'd be seeing them again for a couple hours. Tai just looked on helplessly, still too in shock to register what was happening, and Qrow decided to take pity on the man and get some pain relievers ready for the headache he knew his friend was experiencing. Tai would adjust quickly, just like Qrow had, but some assistance wouldn't go unwelcome in the meantime.

++++++++++RWBY++++++++++

Hades would have smiled if he was able, he really did enjoy running freely, and making Ruby and now Yang happy in the process was just an added bonus. Running always helped him clear his mind, letting him grasp hold of bits and pieces of his past that he couldn't otherwise, but he was starting to think he didn't need them as long as he could stay with Ruby and Qrow. Taiyang and Yang also seemed like genuinely good people that he wouldn't mind staying with, especially if they were related to Ruby and Qrow.

The wolf kept up a quick pace as he ran, the trees blurring around him, but he refrained from going full speed with the sisters on his back. His mind drifted as he went, images of chains and dark rooms and unfamiliar figures appearing in his mind's eye, only to be replaced by light and gentle hands and a soothing voice that reminded him of the moon. He never could make out what was being said, only that it sounded sad but hopeful, regretful but determined, and he got the feeling it was somehow related to how he had woken up here.

The sound of a distant howl caught his attention, his sensitive ears only just picking it up, and Hades decided to head back to the house. He wasn't about to bring Ruby and Yang any closer to potential Grimm, not without their weapons. He would tell Qrow when they got back, the man would take care of the abominations later.


End file.
